Manky Monkey Motors

Lets have a bash at making the clamps to hold that back axle to the frame. Once again i`m giving full credit to Mr Andy Field for the design, because i`ve not seen them anywhere else.

Ok, we know that reliant axle tubes are 2" O.D, cos Andy said so, so we are gonna need some 2" I.D pipe and some 3mm steel plate.  My first problem was getting hold of the 2" I.D, i couldn`t get any! Now i could have popped along my local pipe supplier n spent a fortune buying 6meters of the stuff but being a skinflint, i didnt, i dug out some 50mm bore pipe that i had laying in the shed, i also dug out some 2" O.D pipe which i`ll use as a temperary axle tube.

First job then is to cut it to length, 4" in this case. Easy enough cos i recently bought meself one of them fancy cut off saws. So into the vice, measure 4" from the end of the pipe to the cutting disc, clamp it up tight and cut 2 pieces.

While i`ve got the saw warmed up, i cut the 3mm plate. 4" long by 2" wide, and your gonna want 8 of these. 2" is slightly wider than we need so i`ll trim it later, its just that the plate i had happened to be that width, but it has to be 4" long cos thats the length of our clamps.

So far, so good. Tricky bit next, slicing the pipe in half lengthways. To do this i first used a steel rule to measure accross the O.D of the pipe, 60mm. Then i got a plastic rule and measured the other way, no prizes for guessing that too was 60mm. More importantly, where the 2 rules crossed was the centre of the pipe and this enabled me to mark the halfway point on the pipe wall. Just one point, when your doing this, make sure one of your marks lines up with the inside weld seam, this will save you trying to grind it out later.

Having scribed the half way point i now needed to mark down the length of the pipe, you can use anything with a 90 degree angle to do this with, i used a cheap square, lined up at the top on my mark then scribed down the straight edge to mark the length. Then i did the same down the other side.
This does not have to be 100 percent accurate but the closer you can get to the centre, the better.

Time to dig out the angle grinder and slit the pipe. Make sure your pipe is held securely when you do this! Take it slow and try to get the grinder at a 90degree angle to the pipe, working along your line.

Do this down the other side as well and you`ll now have the two halves of one clamp. So do it all again to the second bit of pipe we cut and you`ll have 4 halves, which is what we need. Give them a quick going over on the grinder to de burr all the edges and tidy up what remains of the internal weld seam and they should look something like the pic below.

and thats it so far cos when i went to set my welder up i found i was out of gas! So look out for the second installment coming soon  ;D

Thanks once again. You know how to keep me busy. I've lost track of all the things you have written to add to the main site.

For those of you that don't have a bench saw thingy, we used a hacksaw and/or cutting disc in the angle grinder to do everything.

HMMM was it you that took my gas bottle, so i couldnt finish this ? ;D
Seriously though, it`ll be a few days till i can get back to this one and finish it.  ;)

Phew! do I get a break now  ;D

VERY nice articles! And i love the pictures that are included! Very helpfull!

Thanks for taking the time to do them, and i look forwad to more!  ;D

I`m glad someone reads them  ;D.
Just attempting to show how things can be done by one man in a shed with basic tools, obviously different people will have a different take on doing things because there are always many ways to achive the same outcome, and this is simply mine.
All the credit though must go to Andy, who`s designs i`m simply copying and to Tanya who sorts out my ramblings and `iffy` camera work, and makes it all look rather good.

Oi!
I sort out the ramblings & iffy camera work! Tazzie does the clever button pressing thing, but I'm not just a pretty face you know!  >:(

ah yes, that i did know  ;D

I'm no gud at spelling and grammer stuff but give me a web page to play with and I'm just fine  ;D

So now we have got the pipe sorted, lets put it on the `axle jig`, which is the 2" O.D pipe i mentioned earlier. 2 things to note, firstly, the 50mm I.D pipe i`m using isn`t a snug fit around the axle, but it will clamp up better so i`m not worried, and secondly, the two halves don`t meet!
Beacuse i used the angle grinder with a cutting disc fitted to slit the pipe, i lost 3mm, the thickness of a cutting disc, each side. But as we are using 3mm plate to make the flanges, its ok.

Next we tack weld one flange to one half of the pipe, and then another flange to the other half on the opposite side. This will fill the 3mm gap i made when i slit the pipe.

Now to even things up a bit, i take another flange and place it in position alongside one we just welded on, then mark down its length, then we need to cut or grind the metal away, back to our line. Do the same again on the opposite side and hey look, we now have a 3mm gap either side again!

 Slide the remaining 2 flanges into the gaps down either side and tack weld those in place. Then clamp the two haves together, this will hold the flanges in position to stop them distorting under the heat and pull the two halves of the clamp tighter around the `axle`. Then weld everything up fully.

Let it all cool down and a quick check that it all still fits snugly around the 2" jig

Now we gotta drill the bolt holes. I marked mine out before i fully welded but it doesn`t matter if you do them after. Gonna be making 10mm holes to take some chunky 10mm bolts, so i measured 15mm in from the slit pipe and 15mm in from each side of the flange and marked this with a centre punch.When drilled out, the holes will be 10mm in from each side with a 60mm gap between, don`t have to be but i liked them that way.

Drill a small 2mm pilot hole to start with then straight through with a 10mm bit taking it nice and slow. Then screw the 10mm bolts through to make sure the holes are straight.

that should give you 4 nice evenly spaced holes, and when nuts are added to the back of the bolts, a clamp that erm clamps tightly around your axle.

Still need to even up the flanges and round the corners off, so i`ll post that wen its done.

Nice & concise explanation TB.

Right, time to even up thoses flanges. I measured out from the inner edge to somewere that looked good, 35mm in this case, and marked my line. Then clamped the mount in a vice and, using a cutting disc in the angle grinder, i simply cut through both flanges at the same time. Flip it over and cut the opposite side.

All that needs doing now is to round off the corners. Dont suppose you have to, but hey, why not? Nothing fancy here (do i ever do anything fancy ?), simply grind the corners off to a nice radius, you can pre draw this if you like, but i just did mine `by eye`.

Give it a quick run over with the grinder to remove the burrs and sharpe edges.And there you have it! One axle clamp with nice rounded ears. While we are on the subject of shape, theses flanges are simple rectangles, there is nothing stopping you being creative and adding a little flare to the shape of the flange.

not drawn properly, just to give an idea how you can personalise the flanges.

Well done TB. We'll get that added to the main site when we get a spare 5 minutes.
I just draw around a suitable sized washer with my white Tippex pen to mark radiuses on corners. Flap's trike has small reflectors mounted on the back of the clamps. No reason why you couldn't make the top flange big enough to incorporate a rectangular one. 

i`ll sort out the photos and send them across via that e mailing thingy. Maybe you can weave your magic on them and make them a bit better  ;D

I think you need a photographic assistant in the shed mate. We'll do our best!